COVID-19 Global Response: What The World, Especially Africa Should Learn From The World’s Most Powerful Country’s Missteps
That Fidelity to Knowledge and Science Trumps Politics, Ideology and Human Power
The Coronavirus pandemic, the greatest public health crisis the world has faced in a century has resulted in over 850,000 deaths worldwide and over 187,000 deaths in the United States of America (USA) — view by country.
Our hearts, prayers and condolences go to the families who have lost loved ones prematurely to the Coronavirus during this pandemic. Very heartwrenching indeed. The human toll and resulting economic consequences in the USA have many observers and analysts all over the world scratching their heads.
How is it that the world’s most powerful and most scientifically advanced nation finds itself clothed in this ignominy? A nation with 4.25% of the world’s population saddled with about 22% of the SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths respectively.
Can this really be happening to America, the world’s premier center of higher education, research, innovation and discovery? Well, let us examine four reasons why many people, including non-Americans are so flabbergasted.
1. Quality Higher Education
In the World University Rankings 2020-21 published by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), for the ninth year in a row, the USA is home to eight of the top-10 Universities in the world, led by Harvard University. The top 2000 universities in the world were ranked by CWUR and 357 universities in the USA including three from Puerto Rico were on the list.
The dominance of the USA in the arena of high quality higher education is unquestioned. The country is home to 51 of the top 100 Universities in the world with the United Kingdom coming in a distant second with ten and Germany third with five.
2. World Class Hospitals.
For the second year in a row, the leading hospitals in 21 countries were ranked by Newsweek in partnership with global data research company Statista Inc. The ranking, titled, Best Hospitals 2020 — Top 100 Global — Newsweek, shows that the USA is home to the top three hospitals in the world, four of the top ten and 11 of the top 50.
3. Top Biomedical Research Institutions in The World
Nature Index 2019 provides a table showing the leading research institutions in the world ranked by their fractional count (FC) in biomedical sciences from 2015 to 2018: Top 200 institutions in biomedical sciences — Nature Index. The FC takes into account the share of authorship on each article.
The USA is home to 85 of these 200 institutions, and to an astonishing 68% of the top 50 Biomedical Research Institutions in the World. The United Kingdom comes in at a distant second with four, China and Germany are tied for third with three each.
4. Countries With the Most Well-Developed Public Health Care Systems
In a survey of more than 20,000 global citizens from four regions of the world “to assess perceptions of 73 countries on 65 different metrics” conducted by US News and World Report titled Countries With the Most Well-Developed Public Health Care, the USA ranked 15th. The country is not in the top 10, but still a respectable showing.
So, how is it possible that this invisible enemy, SARS-CoV-2 has managed to bring the world’s superpower to its knees?
The answer simply may lie in the inability and/or unwillingness of the very top of the nation’s leadership to acknowledge with humility that he knows what he does not know, i.e the science of SARS-CoV-2.
The result is that the scientists and epidemiologists have their hands twisted to make recommendations or go along with pronouncements by political leaders that have no basis in scientific facts.
This is a lesson for the whole world. It is a reminder that irrespective of the system of government, the nature and extent of power entrusted to the highest political leadership have dire consequencies. Indeed, survival of the citizens and the harmony and stability of the nation are at stake as revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even more important is the centrality of clear-eyed philosophy of the leadership that should be brought to bear on the most serious challenges facing any nation.
Perhaps in no region of the world is this lesson more pertinent than Sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s poorest region with fragile institutions and poor healthcare systems. A region that is yet to harness its potentials especially the vibrant young population and enormous natural resources.
Africa has largely escaped the dire predictions of morbidity and mortality for the continent at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wether this situation will be sustained remains to be seen. However, the differences between Africa and the most affected countries with reliable data may be explained by early and stringent lock- down, young population, environmental factors, genetics, and the immune system of the population.
In a January 2019 article in Brookings by Acha Leke and Landry Signe titled Spotlighting opportunities for business in Africa and strategies … they stated:
“Consider one question: How many companies in Africa earn annual revenues of $1 billion or more? Most global executives and academics we speak with guess there are fewer than a hundred. Many answer “zero.” The reality? More than 400 such companies exist — and they are, on average, both faster growing and more profitable than their global peers”.
In recent years several African Diaspora Associations have been involved in African development. For example, The Kenya Diaspora Alliance (KDA) has been very active in Kenya’s development on several fronts. Unlike several nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya has a well respected judiciary and a relatively stable democracy.
Yes, Africa, the youngest continent in the world with median age of 19.7years is often referred to as the world’s next big growth market. However, many African nations, especially the nations of Sub-Saharan Africa have weak institutions, poor infrastructure and suffer from poor governance.
Some of the most lethal deficits facing these African nations are leadership crisis and profound deficits in infrastructure, education and healthcare. Conflicts and wars are also major concerns.
So, what are the lessons African nations must learn from the missteps of the USA in its response to the Coronavirus pandemic?
African leaders must realize that fidelity to knowledge and science trumps politics, ideology, human power and natural resources. For Africa to live up to its potential as the world’s next big growth market, the leaders must also address the issues of poor governance and infrastructure deficits boldly and with honesty.
The importance of Africa to world economy and global security will continue to rise in this century. Thus, it behooves the developed world to engage the leaders and the people in the continent in a constructive and just fashion.
